With three knocks on the door of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross just after 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 31, Archbishop Richard Henning began his journey as the 10th bishop and seventh archbishop of the Archdiocese of Boston, succeeding Cardinal Seán O’Malley.

As is tradition, following the knock on the cathedral doors, Archbishop Henning was welcomed by Cardinal O’Malley, and a procession into the cathedral followed. The installation was attended by about 1,400 people, according to the archdiocese, including French Cardinal Christophe Pierre, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, five additional cardinals, five archbishops, and more than 50 bishops. Among them was Bishop Robert Brennan of Brooklyn, who has known Archbishop Henning since they were students together at St. John’s University.

Nearly five hundred priests, religious, deacons, seminarians, and lay people were in attendance, as were Archbishop Henning’s family members. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu was also among the government, interfaith, and local business leaders in attendance.

Cardinal O’Malley opened the installation Mass with a brief greeting before Cardinal Pierre gave remarks and then read aloud an English translation of the papal bull, or decree, from Pope Francis naming Archbishop Henning as the archbishop of Boston.

Cardinal Pierre thanked Cardinal O’Malley for “all the ways in which you have been close to God and to God’s people” in his 40 years as a bishop and in 21 years as the archbishop of Boston. The comments were met with a standing ovation.

On behalf of Pope Francis, Cardinal Pierre thanked Archbishop Henning for his closeness to the faithful and his pledge to continue to express that closeness in his new ministry in the Archdiocese of Boston.

“I’m confident that your experiences as a pastor and leader will help you in your mission here, but even more fundamentally, what will guide you is what you have come to know from your encounter with God,” Cardinal Pierre said. “It is there, in this personal encounter, that you are able to receive the good Lord’s love, kindness, understanding, mercy.”

Following Cardinal Pierre’s reading of the papal bull, Archbishop Henning showed it to the archdiocese’s College of Consultors, who validated the papal seal. Once accepted, Henning presented it to the entire assembly, making his way around the cathedral. He was then led back to the altar to cathedra — the seat of the archbishop — and assumed his role as the archbishop of Boston and celebrated the Mass.

In his homily, Archbishop Henning spoke of communities and families where solidarity and compassion are present and the hope that exists in them. He then, as an example, spoke specifically about the example set by victim-survivors of clergy sex abuse in the archdiocese.

“This Church of Boston is, in a real sense, a wounded Church because of the failure to act with compassion and healing. Sins against the innocent,” Archbishop Henning said.

“We have seen over these decades a passionate effort to protect the vulnerable, but still we feel the weight of those wounds, and we owe a debt of gratitude to victim-survivors who tell their story,” he added,” for they have helped to protect new generations by their courage, and by their prophetic truth-telling to us, and their living of the faith, and their capacity for compassion and solidarity, of love of neighbor.”

Archbishop Henning was born and raised in Rockville Centre, New York, and was ordained an auxiliary bishop of his home diocese in 2018, where he served until he became the bishop of Providence, Rhode Island, last year. His ministry as a priest began at a New York parish in the 1990s before becoming a teacher at and ultimately head of the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, New York.

The Mass concluded with Archbishop Henning expressing gratitude from the pulpit. He thanked Pope Francis for his appointment and expressed closeness to him. He thanked all of the clergy and faithful in attendance, the religious and seminarians, as well as his family.

Archbishop Henning specifically thanked Cardinal O’Malley and noted the entire Church’s gratitude for him.

“The quality of your ministry has always been a truly humble gift of yourself for the sake of others. It has been compassionate. It has been gentle, and it has been truly biblical and authentic to the faith,” Archbishop Henning said.

“You, in a very real sense, have given that witness with your living and with your words, and it has made all of the difference to this church,” he said. “You, in a very real sense, are a foundation on which we will continue to build, so I am so very grateful to you.”

The sentiment was met with another standing ovation for Cardinal O’Malley.

Archbishop Henning closed by again thanking everyone in attendance, saying he was at a loss for words.

“I don’t have the words to express all of the emotions I feel this day, but I hope and pray that I will find the wisdom and the strength to give myself away completely to this beautiful church and to serve you with all of my strength for the years to come,” Archbishop Henning said.